1940s House

Customer Reviews:

The 1940s House Experience - A Lesson For Our Time.......2007-08-15

Channel 4 couldn't have picked a better family to live through the 1940s house experience than the delightful Hymers of Otley. Representing a typical WW2 household, the family comprised of a middle aged couple, their daughter and two small grandsons, and they threw themselves into the programme with infectious enthusiasm and lived through the war experience to their best ability, taking the rough with the smooth, laughing and crying and somehow drawing the viewer right into their front room in the process.

This year 2000 family was dropped into a 1939 furnished house, complete with thirties hairdos and clothes. Over the next nine weeks they were put through a simulated but of necessity fastforwarded wartime experience.

With rationing, shortages, disturbed nights in their self-built Anderson shelter (the house and shelter was wired for sound to simulate bombing raids), the misery of blackouts, 'Digging for Victory', Women's Voluntary Service Work, British Restaurant food, homespun entertainment, homemade hair dye, no TV but just a radio for company, no central heating, a V2 raid which left the house without water and power, contributions from the marvellous Marguerite Patten and several other real home front veterans, application to stringent wartime demands of recycling which would put today's average green supporter in the shade, this documentary brought to bear many of the experiences of those war years.

Not only is it a tremedously entertaining fly on the wall documentary, it is educational but also the sort of programme that makes one think a great deal after one has seen it. It has allowed me to understand my parents' generation a lot better, i.e. those who actually lived through those years of fear and austerity. As I think Lyn Hymers commented (the grandmother in the series), the war cast a long shadow.

The family returned to the year 2000 healthier, slimmer, wealthier (Lynne found that her newfound daily shopping routine at the local shops 'à la 1940s', as opposed to once a week at the supermarket, saved her over £100 a week!), happier and less argumentative. In short, it seems that less is more - we have too much today. It makes one want to throw one's TV out of the window and live through a self-imposed 1940s diet regime.

Of course the full misery of air raids and losing loved ones - that could not be replicated but I felt that the family made a point of trying to do their best to honour those who really did suffer such hardships. This was handled with great sensitivity.

This UK version is unabbridged (unlike the shorter USA version for DVD) and also has a most wonderful soundtrack if you like 40s music, also cut out for the most part in the US version.

I think every child in Britain should watch it - with granny nearby.

Average customer rating:

Interesting and thought provoking
Excellent
Very very good, Well worth watching.

1940s House [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Marguerite Patten , Guy de la Bédoyère , Thomas Hymers , Michael Hymers , and Lyn Hymers
Director: Caroline Ross-Pirie
Manufacturer: PBS Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000AYL47
Release Date: 2003-08-05

Amazon.co.uk Review

Channel 4's The 1940s House capitalised on the success of the channel's The 1900 House by using the same format--combining documentary with reality TV--to explore a different era. Three generations of the Hymer family (Lyn, Michael, their daughter Kirstie and her two sons Ben and Thomas) from Ottley in Yorkshire donned Brylcreem, home knits and red lippy to play house in a West Wycombe semi-detached for 9 weeks, 1940s style.

The five episodes, which concentrate largely on the early half of the decade and the war years, are bookended by analysis. The first sets the scene by following the meticulous reconstruction of the house itself and a "Dig For Victory" garden, the transformation of the local shop and the establishment of a wartime cabinet (consisting of scientists and historians) who dictate the family's living conditions in accordance with the progression of the war. The fun really starts in episode two when the Hymers get to grips with blackouts, air raids, food shortages and building an Anderson shelter in the back garden. Life without mod cons doesn't suit them and initially, although there are light-hearted moments, Lyn and Kirstie are prone to a moan. In episode three life gets increasingly difficult when Michael returns to work in Yorkshire, leaving the women to cope with the hardest war years by themselves. The nature of this social experiment achieves a level of involvement that traditional documentaries can't get near. Not only is there enormous detail--the vegetable-root hair dye, the disposal of sanitary towels, the five-inch lukewarm baths--but also the family act as our entry point into a different world. Their experience cannot fail to engage our imaginations and our emotions. Conditions improve in the fourth instalment with the arrival of large numbers of US military and food parcels, but in the final episode, with the Hymers reflecting back on the 1940s from their everyday lives, we see that doing without has made a lasting impact. Emma Perry

Customer Reviews:

Interesting and thought provoking.......2005-08-12

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the 1940s House. Its very interesting, funny, informative and thought provoking. It made me realise how hard things were for people during the war, especially the rationing. The family that took part were great and really tried their best whilst in the house, however hard it got. I took an instant liking to the family - they were 'normal' down to earth people and at times you really felt for them, especially when they were hungry and you could see how exhausted they were getting. My 9 year old son loved it too and I think it is quite educational for the kids to see. The last episode concentrates on how the family get back to normal life after their experience in the 1940s House and I found this fascinating, for instance the 'Gran' seems to revert to 1940s living somewhat - shopping with her basket, giving up driving, shopping in local butchers, bakers etc rather than the supermarket. It certainly made me think about how lucky we are today with the choices we have now, but also how we as a society are so wasteful with things. Recommended.

Excellent.......2005-05-22

This is a fantastic video about life on the Home Front during the Second World War. The attention to detail is amazing and the family taking part in the experience did a brilliant job of living as a 1940's family. Well worth watching, anyone who is interested in this period of history will not be dissappointed.

Very very good, Well worth watching........2001-11-29

Very good, so interesting, you can learn loads about the war and how it was for the people living a normal life at home, while they coped through dramatic situatuions.
personaly i love this video and recomend it to anyone, i think the price ... is very good and i would buy it. The director and filming team must of spent loads of time on this video as it is one of the best programme/films i've seen.

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